Ordo Fiducalem
The Ordo Fiducalem is the sector wide surveillance apparatus of House Eridanus. It is the primary method with which the House keeps its working class serfs in line. The Ordo also detects and eliminates subversive elements within Eridanii holdings and assets across Acheron Rho. Its iconography is a hand grasping a large golden coin depicting an eye. The organisation was formed through rebranding of the Demnoph Central Intelligence during the A.C.R.E. audit. 'Daily operations' Eridanus working class serfs are heavily surveilled in their daily lives. The companies under House Eridanus use a combination of biometric data and VI assisted computer analysis to keep their employees in line and operations on target. The Ordo Fiducalem utilises these systems to surveil the general populace. Serfs that show sufficiently deviant behavior are openly punished, with the purpose to instil loyalty and fear into the lower classes. The level of deviancy required for the Ordo to intervene varies depending on the location, and specific function of the serf. Demnoph has far stricter regulations in this regard, whereas Eridanus serfs on other core worlds have a greater degree of leniency. When the Ordo finds a deviant element in working class of House Eridanus, they send in the Enforcement Officers. This starkly uniformed secret police force is feared by the serfs, and respected by the nobility for their ruthless methods and brutal efficiency. The Ordo Fiducalem does not generally surveil non-Eridanus personnel or assets, because their infrastructure is set up for internal espionage. They do work together with The PRISM Network and House Crux to trade relevant information when necessary. During armed conflict, the information gathered by Ordo Fiducalem is processed by the Military Intelligence Division, see below. 'Leadership' The Odro Fiducalem is lead by a committee of Eridanii cobles and common-born intelligence experts called the Directorial Council of Public Order. The Ordo was established as an organisation under the control of the Triumvirate. However, the House Eridanus leadership quickly found out that the Demnoph Central Intelligence was far too massive to be controlled directly. The Triumvirate appointed a number of House Eridanus Nobles, who together with upper management of the DCI form the Directorial Council of Public Order. The Directorial Council functions as the head of the Odro Fiducalem and is a powerful entity in House Eridandus politics. Although technically subservient to the Triumvirate, the council pursues its own agenda. They rarely directly oppose the Triumvirate, but are too influential in House politics to be forced to mindlessly obey their superiors. The upper management, and officer positions of the new Ordo Fiducalem have been expanded to accommodate for Erianus nobles who wish to enter into the surveillance branch of the House. These nobles are given the occupational title of Ufficiali. Most of these new Ufficiali are inexperienced, but are given symbolic positions inside the command structure until they are sufficiently trained by DCI standards to effectively hold leadership positions. Ufficiali are especially useful when the Ordo has to interact with other nobility, due to the increased social position of Ufficiali over their non-noble colleagues. 'Founding of the Ordo' The Ordo Fiducalem is primarily made up of the assets of the Demnoph Central Intelligence. Most of the divisions of the DCI made it through the A.C.R.E. audit without the dissolving of structure seen in most other A.C.R.E. Departments. Instead, House Eridanus offered the DCI a deal to keep their operations running during the merger. The DCI would remain as a rebranded, but mostly unchanged entity within House Eridanus. Eridanus considered the operations of the DCI to vital for their organisation to be restructured. The leadership of the DCI was quick to take this offer and swear fealty to their new Noble lieges, all the while knowing that they would end up in positions of significant power within the new House Eridanus. 'Reputation' The Ordo Fiducalem is known throughout Eridanus as a powerful and deeply respected institution. Ordo personnel are known to be stoic and indomitable. They perform their duties with a high level of emotional detachment. Even the most condescending of Nobles know to keep their mouths shut when in the presence of Ordo Fiducalem officers. The Ordo is respected and feared in equal measure throughout House Eridanus due to their control of information. The Ordo has surveillance in every company of House Eridanus, and possesses “sensitive information” on every Noble Family in the House. They treat this information with the utmost care, but every Noble in House Eridanus knows that they must stay on the good side of the Ordo Fiducalem. Organisations such as the Triumvirate, Actii Mercantil, Tax Breachers, Margin Scheme, and important Noble families trade information with the Ordo in exchange for political favours or bribes. 'Structure' The Ordo Fiducalem is led by the Directorial Council of Public Order. The council ensures the smooth running of all branches of Ordo and even plans missions directly with agents if the need arises. The Ordo is made up of five divisions: Internal Affairs Division, Analysis Division, Prognostics Division, Operations Division, and Military Intelligence Division. Each of these Divisions operates as a separate command structure and is responsible for a specific type of operation. The Council has a force of secret police under their direct command called the Cleaners. 'Cleaners' The Cleaners division is the elite black-ops unit of Ordo Fiducalem and answers directly to the Directorial Council. If a situation devolves to the point where the divisions and their various branches cannot control it, a Cleaner unit is sent directly by the Council to take charge of the situation and fix the problem. Orders to Cleaners are always verbal, written records of their missions never kept. 'Internal Affairs Division' The Internal Affairs (IA), serves as the internal affairs and internal security apparatus. They are the internal safety and accountability division of the Ordo, both from an espionage and operations scale, as well as a physical security standpoint. Its primary purpose it so safeguard the operations of the Ordo, and prevent internal corruption from damaging the organisation. IA agents are well mannered but ruthless to the core. Rarely if ever abusing their power, they enjoy a good reputation among the rest of Ordo, despite their responsibilities. Information inside IA is heavily secured against unauthorized access by other Divisions, but freely shared within itself. This is a means for IA to monitor itself: every decision, action or piece of data generated by a member of IA is available for any other agent to examine. This lack of secrecy and often privacy, can make it nearly impossible for an enemy agent to operate within IA. IA is separated into two branches: the Internal Security Branch (IntSec) and the Internal Counterintelligence Branch (IntCon). IntSec is the security personnel for the physical locations of Ordo. They are usually the only visibly uniformed branch of Ordo to openly carry weapons inside of its facilities, though plainclothes officers monitor crowds outside to spot trouble. IntCon is the internal affairs and counterintelligence service of Ordo. 'Analysis Division' The Analysis Division is responsible for handling large amounts of data from the companies and assets of House Eridanus, searching for deviant activity by analyzing the patterns in the data they handle, and transmitting the information to the Prognostics division. The Analysis division has several branches that deal with various areas. *The Systems Branch collects, analyses, cross references all the biometric and statistical data from Eridanus companies to monitor serf behavior in their workspaces. Sufficiently deviant activities are logged, and profiles are built for those serfs that operate outside of the norm set by the House. These profiles are shared with the Enforcement branch for possible suppression. *The Media Branch is the section of Analysis responsible for the handling of public information and every form of media in the sector. They search for patterns of hidden meaning which might betray a clue about the deviant’s patterns and behaviors. *The Signal Branch examines the channel through which information is transmitted. Signal examines line noise to check if it contains a pattern rather than random error. They also examine broadcasts to see if the original and received information matches and if not, how they differed. *The Cryptanalysis Branch, or Crypt, is responsible for all code-breaking. All evidence of coded communication found through Media and Signal's work are transferred to the Cryptanalysis branch. They have a reputation for bizarre behavior that borders on the disruptive and are frequently checked by Ordo's internal monitoring. *The Tech Branch of Analysis is responsible for analyzing any enemy’s hardware, figuring out how it work, and devising superior technology for the Intelligence division in response. Tech is given a lavish budget and many highly skilled personnel, so that their brilliance might translate into new innovative technology. The administration is chosen from scientists and technologists within the branch. They are often lost when having to decide upon the proper priorities of projects outside of their respective fields. *The Interrogation Branch is responsible for handling deviant’s and enemies captured by the Enforcement Branch (see Operations below), DPM, TPM, or collaborating House Crux officers. Interrogation is not as bloodthirsty as their counterparts in the military, using various psychic and psychological techniques to extract information. Torture is considered ineffective and more importantly inefficient. 'Prognostics Division' The Prognostics Division tales the data from the Analysis Division and runs it by a group of experts to predict what the deviant elements in House Eridanus, and other enemies will do next. Prognostics predicts the trends of groups who offer resistance to the House using VI assisted computer algorithms. The information learned from these calculations is useful for detecting deviant activity, and is necessary due to the extremely large amount of serfs the Ordo has to keep under control. However, the inaccuracy rate of the information is not known to the public. The predictions from Prognostics are used by the Operations Division thwart the actions of deviant’s inside the House. 'Operations Division' This Division handles all Ordo operation out in the field. It is by far the biggest division out of the four. Operations handles the physical enforcement of the Ordo’s surveillance and is responsible for quelling dissent in the House at large. The division is divided into six distinct branches. *The Enforcement Branch functions as the secret police force of the Ordo. They operate in stark black on gray uniform and carry weapons and armor for the express purpose of subduing deviant elements and criminal activity within House Eridanus. If a serf or organisation misbehaves significantly enough, Enforcement will come knocking at their door. The sight of Enforcement operatives often causes people to vacate the premise due to the fear that their uniforms inspire. *The Surveillance Branch uses more traditional surveillance techniques rather than data analysis to watch out for subversive elements. Sorting through information and unerringly selecting suspects currently involved in anti-Eridanus activity. Surveillance does its job with surprising efficiency despite its small size. *The Counterintelligence Branch. While Internal Affairs performs counter-intelligence operations for the internal operations of Ordo, Counterintelligence focuses on operations on the sector as a whole. They specialize in identifying and dismantling the intelligence operations of organised resistance efforts from serfs, and other enemies. If a particular operation is considered potentially useful to the Ordo., Counterintelligence will hand over all information on the enemy intelligence operation to the Infiltration branch, who then takes it and deals with it accordingly. However, if an operation is considered insignificant or too dangerous, Counterintelligence will destroy it. *The Infiltration Branch first assigns its agents to assist the Intelligence division branches, especially Sedition. They undergo intense training, mnemonic drugs enhancing their learning. Those who survive with their minds intact acquire a great deal of knowledge, and are then transferred back to the Operations Division and Infiltration proper. They are tested to see which mission profile suits them best. *The Destabilization Branch (Destab) are known as "the quiet branch." No one knows much about Destab's operations or personnel. They are however, known for committing full-fledged atrocities rather than legitimate intelligence operations. Their purpose is to instil fear into the working class, so that they are less likely to deviate from the norm. Officially, Destab specializes in "taking the fabric which holds a people, community or organisation together and unraveling it." Agents from other branches suggest Destab's methods closely resembled "shredding." They instill pure terror into a population and destroy any semblance of social order. *The Assassination Branch is embraced by other agents, long considered a legitimate means of removal by key members of the opposition. Assassination's agents are trained to take every advantage, to use every trick and matter of subterfuge possible. Assassination is careful to select targets which mission success is probable. Their success ratio is much higher than the theoretical one. 'Military Intelligence Division' (MID) The primary purpose of the Ordo Fiducalem is to surveil Eridanii citizens. However, the Ordo can be mobilised to act in a military capacity. The MID functions as operational command structure that oversees missions to gather information, and interfere with potential enemies of the House. The MID owns relatively few personnel, but instead uses the personnel of other divisions for its operations. During peacetime, the MID is only active in a limited capacity. Mostly occupied with basic external surveillance and counter-intelligence. During armed conflicts, the Directorial Council allocates more personnel and resources to the MID, increasing external intelligence operations when they become necessary. 'Sector Plexus' The Sector Plexus is the hub for all information processed by the Ordo. Sector Plexus maintains an enormous database filled with information on every Ordo operative, their aliases, and their activities. 'Personnel' The operatives of the Ordo Fiducalem are selected from the House Eridanus serf population at a very young age out of orphans and children whose parents are not able to provide for them. Only a few out of millions are selected into this program and only one in hundred out of those get through the training, the rest end up in organisations such as the Acti Condotta, Tiberian Planetary Militia, or Demnophi Planetary Militia. The training involves indoctrination and education in everything the operatives could need, like economics, politics, etiquette, engineering, theory of warfare, espionage, torture and so on from the time the children are recruited. Physical training starts with “games” like tag or hide and seek, getting more intense with advancing age at the discretion of the trainers, peaking around age 20. At that time the operatives are sent on their first real missions, already having gone multiple simulated ones. Category:House Eridanus Category:Demnoph Category:Tiber